yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Captivate General] alambers:
Just a quick update here. I drove around today using my previously posted settings. It took a couple minutes to attain a lock (probably due to me driving around), however, once it did lock a fixed 7-8 out of 9-10 satellites. My accuracy was consistently 5 meters. I'd like to add that with these settings my reported speed was much more accurately and quickly updated than stock.
[Captivate General] zoid_99:
What do you uses to see how many locked in sats you have? sing GPS Test I never see more than 1.
[Captivate General] Skijackz:
Wanted to let everybody know. Before the changes, no lock and no satellites seen in-doors. Made the changes above (the very first ones) and now I'm getting 6 locks at 16.4 feet indoors.

Remember to reboot. I actually had to do it twice.

Ski
[Captivate General] alambers:
I use both GPS Status and the LBS Test Mode. GPS Status reports in numbers where LBS Test Mode you have to count asterisks (*) to see how many satellites are fixed.
[Captivate General] ALDEJESUS:
Before using the first settings, I have 5 satellites but no lock. Now i get 9-10 sat. And 6-8 lock with a acurracy of 5-10 meters. Using goggle maps is extremly accurate. Thanks for the help.
[Captivate General] rabbivj:
the only prob im having is GPS is with speed test, it keeps wanting to get a lock down in texas instead of the server by my house which is southfield mi...any way to fix it? Other than that my GPS works flawlessly...
[Captivate General] heygrl:
www.spirent-lcs.com

7275 (all stock;don't change from stock)

Under application settings

Operating Mode:Standalone

Accuracy:20 (not sure of the difference here)

Use SkyHook:On

Takes about 30 seconds to get a lock but you will get one.
[Captivate General] cdwhit:
GPS indoors?

OK, I don't have an Android yet, but I have had a couple GPS devices; one a dedicated GPS (Magellan 330), and an HTC Tilt. Neither of these devices would acquire a satellite fix from inside the house. The GPS satellites are "line of sight", if there's very much between you and them, it won't work. With the devices I had that included ceilings, metal car roofs, thick tree cover, or very heavy cloud cover.

While I could get a fix on either of these devices in the car, it was only if they were close to a window, and the fix was MUCH faster if I held the device out the window.

As far as the accuracy, Google maps (and maybe other systems) have 2 ways to pinpoint a location. One way is by phone towers, which isn't really GPS, it's triangulating your location from 3 or more phone towers. This is even possible on phones that don't have built in GPS! Some of the accuracey ranges people are quoting is in the range of of tower triangulation. You are NOT getting the GPS satellites. The accuracy of the triangulation setting depends on the number of towers that are returning data and your distance from the towers and I'm not sure what the maximum accuracy is, but I would guess that 100 - 50 meters could very well just be triangulation.

Just my 2 cents.
[Captivate General] LiqudDeth:
In you Location and Security settings do you have both Wireless and GPS sources checked, or just GPS?
[Captivate General] alambers:
I've done a lot more testing today and learned the following:

1. The GPS in the Captivate is extremely sensitive to what's under the phone. Your hand, your lap, and your desk will all reduce GPS reception a lot.

2. The "Accuracy" setting in LBS Test Mode determines how "sloppy" a fix is allowed to be. A higher setting makes it easier to fix on satellites but yields generally less accurate GPS fixes. A lower setting makes fixing satellites more difficult but yields generally more accurate GPS fixes. I've currently settled on the previously mention setting of 20. Anything below that drops satellite fixes too frequently to be useful to me.

3. The GPS in the Captivate isn't currently as good as the GPS in the G1. With my G1 I can achieve accuracy to 2m where the Captivate can only get 5m (if it's lucky). I'm going to look into putting LbsTestMode on the G1 or finding a native app with similar functionality for it. I'm really curious what settings are being used there. Hopefully this is just a driver issue and will be resolved soon.

All my testing was done with data connectivity disabled (cellular and wifi).
[Captivate General] ALDEJESUS:
Both are marked
[Captivate General] Shadow77895:
In response to this, I'd say that while increasing the signal strength needed to "lock in" a satellite might yield better satellites, I'd think that in the end you are still better off having a larger number of less accurate satellites than a smaller number of more accurate ones.

Also, to those who have been suggesting using MS Assisted as opposed to MS Based, I suggest you read this http://www.vzwdevelopers.com/aims/public/menu/lbs/LBSFAQ.jsp. The context is somewhat irrelevant, but the information presented is what's important.

Quoting:
[Captivate General] alambers:
In principle I would tend to agree. For me the setting of 20 not only locks in around 8 seconds but it fixes 5-7 of 10 satellites for an accuracy of 5-10m. Areas of poor signal quality may require a higher setting.

A contributor to many signal problems may be the signal loss if the upper back of the phone is blocked. You can test this by checking your position holding the phone around the bottom then the top. The difference for me is dramatic.

The thing I'm stuck on at the moment is how much better my G1 performs. It routinely yields 2-3m accuracy while my Captivate is struggling to drop from 10m to 5m.
[Captivate General] rabbivj:
i tried changing the settings on my end now im not even getting a fix at all...ittl lock onto 8-9 satellites thne go down to do without a gps lock...ill try the original settings to see if that helps too...

i turned on aGps and it seems it takes abt 165 seconds to get a lock indoors and abt prolly 15 secs outdoors...the best accuracy i got was 10 meters.
[Captivate General] Simba501:
Yes!!! I can finally get a lock. I tested it twice outdoors and achieved a lock both times. I also walked around and it sufficiently tracked my movement. I have played around and tried several sets of settings that have worked for other people, but to no avail. I don't use gps alot, but I do need it sometimes. My captivate doesn't perform as well as my past smartphones in terms of gps, but as long as I can get a lock and the phone update my movements, it will suffice. :), thank you!
[Captivate General] askpcguy:
And how is the performance after a few weeks? I noticed the performance is worse since I had to re-flash my device back to factory default because I uninstalled Google talk and could not download anything from the Market.
[Captivate General] carpboy:
Doing these gave me a noticible improvement - but still issues. I had tried almost everything. I was getting virtually zero lock. On occasion it would lock in but only for 30-50 meters and then only for several seconds. Doing the above gave me much better lock, 4 or 5 sats and 30 meters. But when I moved around they dropped and never came back. When I returned home they came in again.

I then applied what was different to this compared to the scenario at the beginning of this post and that was the magic bullet for me. Very quick lock and 5 - 30 meters. I will see 8-9 sats and lock to 6-8 of them. It will drop now and again but it recovers quickly.

Not ideal but now the phone I was dreading to return is now possibly salvageable.

Note that WiFi is OFF for me so I don't know if skyhook is doing anything.

I have issues with Google mobile maps. Using it I get the GPS icon acting it has no signal and then it drops me in some weird place. When it does have me, the movement is extremely sluggish and incorrect. I check GPS status and everything is boffo. I run MapDroyd and it is great as well. Google mobile is still having issues for some reason. Can anyone comment on this?
[Captivate General] carpboy:
Note: I had 'use wireless' disabled in 'location and security'. Enabling this made all the difference in Google. The unit (Google and MapDroyd) has a 5-10 second lag at times, hardware issues no doubt, but at least it is now usable.
[Captivate General] askpcguy:
Could you post the settings you are using now? Everything in Application Settings and SUPL/CP Settings if you don't mind. I'd like to compare it to what I have.
[Captivate General] jolson23:
Shadow....the fix that you have suggested works just great. I have experimented with others and some just sort of worked. Your fix works constantly and is almost on par with my N1. A gps fix never takes longer than 7 seconds and usually just 5. Will have to wait for Fryo in September and see what happens.

Love the Captivate, still use my N1 when I have to use feataures that AT@T has locked down on the Caprivate. The N1 is still just about the best android phone out there, just wish it had the 4" screen.

Looks like the problem is solved for the time being, just waiting for Fryo and the official fix...thanks
[Captivate General] carpboy:
Sorry for the delay.

I have been having a very dispiriting mixed bag of results.

The settings mentioned above were:

tracking

s/w

ms assisted

hot

on

on

100

on

off

auto

-

-

off

supl

When I would get far from home, several miles, the locks would peter out to nothing. I don't know if my proximity to a cell tower is an issue for the home locks.

Over the last days I've been driving a lot, in open country in PA and NJ on the turnpikes. This affords me the opportunity to make a lot of tests, trying one thing at a time.

Today I stumbled on some settings (is it the settings or just making changes and rebooting that helps?????) that worked with one very critical caveat:

tracking

stand alone

hot

on

off

100 (150?? I swear I changed this but then it was back at 100)

on

off

auto

-

-

on

supl

I had a lock for two hours today, all the way from Harrisburg to home. The problem was that after exactly three minutes the GPS would stop. In the graphical GPS Test (there are two programs by the same name) it would freeze. In Google Maps and the other GPS Test, the GPS icon would disappear. But restarting gave lock w/in 30 seconds. I measured accuracy not by where on a map I was but by what it gave me my speed as. It would take 15 - 30 seconds to get up to my 69 MPH and once there there was about a 5 second delay for changes to show up in the speed. I repeated this over and over on the way home, the three minute interval was exact.

I changed dynamic accuracy back to ON and the three minute issue immediately went away. The problem was that I then couldn't get any locks. Nothing. After a few more changes I reverted back to my settings that worked that day and I had a hard time getting a lock, even at home where I was getting them while near the house.

Playing around some more tonight I started getting good home locks again. I will again be driving to H'Burg so will have some good test time tomorrow. What started working for me tonight was to launch up lbstestmode and then leave Get Position Test app running in the background. I don't know why my earlier settings aren't working now (the three minute limit ones), I will try them again tomorrow.

I am currently at, for the drive tomorrow:

tracking

s/w

standalone

hot

on

on

40

off

off

auto

-

-

off

supl
[Captivate General] heygrl:
Standalone and lbs.geo.t-mobile.com is giving me good results.

Accuracy correlates to how many meters of accuracy is required before the GPS "locks". I haven't seen much higher than 250 feet though.
[Captivate General] halfhp:
I think there might be some bad info going around here. First of all some background: A "gps fix" is not the same as a "satellite fix". In order to have any idea at all where you are, you need more than 1 satellite. Typically the magic number is 4+ for most consumer GPS units. There is no accuracy expressed in terms of distance associated with a single satellite; the "accuracy" value on your phone actually has nothing to do with whether or not a particular satellite gets used. What the accuracy threshold actually does is determine the threshold that the unit uses to decided whether or not it is in "gps lock". Both raising and lowering this value can be a good thing depending on your application, however lowering the value WILL NOT increase your accuracy. In fact it will probably do the oposite.

Higher number = faster lock times, more frequent usable gps updates

Lower number = more accurate, fewer useable / more sporadic gps updates

EDIT:

A quick example of how both extremes might be useful:

Lower number:

Imagine you are using one of those fancy jogging apps to record your jogging route and see how far/fast you ran. You dont want to record random points 200+ feet away from where you actually are, since this will severely throw off the measurements of how far you actually ran, where you ran etc. So you set the number relatively low. Since you arent moving that fast, you dont necessarily need updates every second can afford to wait for your gps unit to get an accurate fix.

Higher number:

You use gps to find out where you are so you can find nearby food using Yelp or get the local weather etc. Since you dont really care exactly where you are, its preferably to get the fastest update possible. Of course you could just use cell tower triangulation for that, but thats a different thread all together :)
[Captivate General] askpcguy:
Well I just re-flashed to the unoffical I897UCJH2 ROM and Titanium Backup restored LbsTestMode settings from my previous ROM. Now I've no clue what the stock settings are for I897UCJH2.
[Captivate General] halfhp:
Big oops - I meant to say raising the value, not lowering.
[Captivate General] askpcguy:
Having the unofficial ROM, I can tell the gps performance is a little better. I got a lock after deleting gps data in under two minutes down to 30 meters or better.

Then I located this page: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=9057 and the app does what it says. I can now use my external bluetooth gps receiver with the Captivate. Accuracy is 3 meters. Stationary lock time is 45 seconds from a cold fix and 10 or less seconds for a hot fix.

Here is the home page for the app http://www.mobile-j.de/snipsnap/space/start
[Captivate General] shep211:
GPS fix from epic 4g

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=759976
[Captivate General] carpboy:
Mucking with all these settings is utter uselessness.

Point: The other day I had the phone at my house and it was locking right in immediately, good accuracy, point on the map spot on, etc. No wifi on, just cell. It was great all night, up to 10 sats in view. I had it on the table next to my notebook while it was charging. I came down the next morning to find that not only would it not lock, it was seeing 0 or 1 sat. I went on a 2 hour turnpike drive and it never did better than 1 sat in view. On the return the same but then all of a sudden it was the best it had ever been. Tons of sats, great fast accurate lock, no lag in point plotting, phenomenal. 10 minutes later it all disappeared and went to zero usability.

I have since returned the phone and gotten another. Out of the box it worked pretty well. Fast lock, accuracy off and laggy, but usable. Over the last two days its performance has degraded. It now takes about 10 minutes to get a lock and then it is really jumpy and laggy, all the while claiming 10m accuracy.

lbstest is really pointless for what is going on here - for most of us there is some major inherent flaw that we aren't going to repair w/out a manufacturer update. This phone is going back in two weeks.
[Captivate General] mongstradamus:
the first few days of getting new phone , the gps will seem to work very well but after a few days it craps out like every other phone. I did what you are probably going to end up doing which is play wait and see. Returned the phone and will see if the "gps fix" is actually an fix not an bandaid.
[Captivate General] askpcguy:
Since I installed the unoffical ROM from samsung-firmware.com (i897ucjh2) I think it enabled the Use Wireless Networks under Location and Security. I found GPS performance more responsive since it piggybacks cell tower triangulation which will work even indoors. Then I switched that off and found the GPS performance took a hit. However it'll still obtain a lock which I tested while walking outside, three minutes to a Google Maps location lock isn't bad.

I am interested to see what the Samsung fix is.
[Captivate General] Ikonomi:
I'm wondering if I had a GPS crap-out today. My GPS had been very slow to lock since I got my phone at release, until I applied some of the suggested settings listed on this forum. It had been working fairly well for about a week, quickly locking onto 4+ satellites every time I turned it on and maintaining enough of a position to accurately use navigation. It had hiccups, but overall it was vastly improved from the stock condition. I've even been able to get a lock inside the house, something that was never possible before. This worked just last night, actually.

Well, today, I tried to use navigation, and the GPS did not lock after nearly five minutes. I checked GPS Test, and at points it was reporting only one or two satellites in view, all with very weak signals and none in use. This is in a car on a clear day, on a wide road, with no trees/tall buildings/overpasses around. I turned the GPS off and back on, and it got a "lock" quickly, but with only four satellites. It seemed to work after that, but could only give an approximate location.

I wonder if changing the GPS settings again would help. I hope Samsung can really fix this issue with software.
[Captivate General] mongstradamus:
I am just hoping that the samsung official fix isn't to just enable wireless networks in the settings, that seems like a bandaid issue, and not an real fix. It would be a shame for such an good phone to goto waste because samsung wont properly support it
[Captivate General] askpcguy:
When using LbsTestMode, delete GPS data if it has been over 4-5 hours after a lock. In Hot Start mode, it might obtain a lock quick but I always delete the GPS data just in case. Using Cold Start might not require always having to delete gps data but it results in slower initial lock times.
[Captivate General] MikeyMike01:
If that was their plan, they would have pushed the update right away.
[Captivate General] kismmisk:
Is 3G data used when GPS in use?

Is 3G data used when GPS in use?

My GPS does not work unless 3G data or wi-fi (in short internet is on) enabled. I get the lock pretty fast if 3G data or wi-fi enabled. If I turn them off I keep getting message data connection lost.

Does anyone else has this problem?
[Captivate General] parsons73:
Has anyone looked for a trend in the locations of all those who are experiencing gps issues? I've had my phone for just about 4 weeks now. I live in Colorado and the gps has been flawless. But I just got back from an eleven day vacation in PA and the Jersey shore where my gps reliability was aweful. Now I am back in Colorado and it finds its satellites right away and stays locked on for as long as I need it to. I have a 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hour commute and the gps is spot on the entire way. It makes me wonder. Just thought I'd throw my two cents in.
[Captivate General] parsons73:
By the way, I have made no changes to my phone. I've simply installed Android market apps on it.
[Captivate General] carpboy:
For over a week now absolutely zero GPS performance. Most of the time it isn't even showing any sats, 1 or two at most. I made a 3000 mile RT in car last week and the whole time it was running and not a thing out of it.

What a total piece of junk the GPS portion is. I have been reduced to tethering my Tilt to it and using that for navigation.

Looking for confirmation of bluetooth GPS units that will work on this. Only one I have heard of so far is a Holux M-1000.
[Captivate General] askpcguy:
You can use any bluetooth GPS receiver if you buy the app called Bluetooth GPS provider from the marketplace.
[Captivate General] carpboy:
Not in this case. I had a Leadtek one that the phone would not even see let alone try to pair. A WM6 phone and notebook had no problem seeing it.

I bet it has something to do with the services offered by the device.

That's why I am soliciting info from Galaxy and Captivate in particular users that have successfully done this.
[Captivate General] askpcguy:
:confused: I thought any bluetooth device can pair with the phone. I can pair the Globstat BT-338 receiver with the Captivate. Then I paid for the app and now I can use it instead of the built-in GPS.

Link http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/bt338.php
[Captivate General] carpboy:
Thanks. I'll keep that one in mind in case the Holux M-1000 I just picked up doesn't work out.

Pretty bad we're looking for an external device for this phone.
[Captivate General] askpcguy:
Not so fast, since I tried the Galaxy S i9000 ROM which uses the supl.google.com server instead of the spirent server, I get locks in 30 seconds now. I even went back to the stock captivate rom JF6 but my Nandroid backup has the JH2 pda which I do not think would matter in terms of the GPS. Still get 30 seconds to lock. While driving I had a full lock in GPS Test in a minute.

I went back to JF6 on Tuesday of this week.
[Captivate General] nahrah:
Google maps got updated and so far it locked on real fast with good accuracy. Just did a 2hr errand around town to a few places, just to test it out.

Running JH3 firmware with SRE and one click lag fix
[Captivate General] carpboy:
This phone isn't even seeing but 1 or 2 satellites. All these pointless tweaks are just that - pointless.
[Captivate General] foxbat121:
Have a lock doesn't mean much. I can get quick lock even inside my house. But the real issue is when you drive using it as Nav unit. It blows and often put my position half mile away.
[Captivate General] hmose:
So how about some details? Does this bt338/Captivate combination lose it's way or is it steady as a rock? What app are you using instead of the builtin GPS? Can you then run other mapping apps?
[Captivate General] jayrod88:
Same here. Using the new Google maps I was able to get a lock in under 10 seconds and it stayed locked on my 45 minute commute home. The lock was about 10 meters accurate (not great but not horrible either).
[Captivate General] askpcguy:
I pair the BT-338 with the Captivate.

I bought Bluetooth GPS Provider by mobile-j.de

Have to enable Mock locations in Development settings on the Captivate.

All this allows me to do is use the external Bluetooth GPS receiver instead of the Captivate's GPS chipset.

I can use any app that needs a GPS signal. Google Maps, the Camera app, Layar.. etc.

I'll navigate using the BT-338 today and will reply back when I'm able.

I've used this BT-338 with my Palm treo 650 and TomTom without any problems. It never jumped roads when driving.

The Captivate will do this sporadically using the builtin GPS chipset.
[Captivate General] shaxs:
I was able to lock in pretty quick in Google Maps but Google Navigator cannot find the GPS.